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TRP: Hansel and Larkin (Black Slime)
Day 407, Freeport. Diva, Hansel thought. Diva. Fucking Diva. He paced back and forth and back and forth on the docks. He couldn't stop moving. Hadn't stopped moving, not since the teleportation spell had popped him and Larkin out in the forest, away from Anwyll, from -- the fuckin' thing, from Diva -- and he'd grabbed onto Larkin and just fucking bee-lined out of the jungle. Fucking Diva. Fucking Diva. All oil eyes with her fucking voice. They needed to get back home. To the castle. There could be more hosts. Had to be more hosts, right? Always more fucking hosts, even once they killed that thing in the sewers, she was still fucking here. How the fuck had she gotten into Anwyll? How long'd she had him? Had Raef made his deal with her -- was Anwyll even a fucking person, or was it just fucking Diva? He'd kill her. He was going to fucking kill her. He'd do it with his own hands this time. Kill a dragon, kill a god, kill an abomination. It'd be fine. It'd be fine. Larkin was there -- she was there, nearby, safe, okay, fine, burned her way out of that fucking snake before Hansel could even gut it -- she was all right. He had eyes on her. Knew she was safe. He needed to get to Mishka, though. Needed to keep that thing out of him. Make sure he was safe. Keep it out of Goro. God -- if it was already in Raef, though, waiting, puppeting him -- He kept pacing, and thinking. Didn't really want to be thinking. Couldn't stop, though. Shouldn't, either, because he had to keep them safe. Had to think of all the possibilities, had to plan. He was still breathing hard for some reason, even though they hadn't been running for a while. Like he had at the mouth of the cave. Fucking Anwyll -- or -- or fucking Diva, making him afraid -- if that bitch still had a grip on him, what if she was close enough to -- JEN "Hey. Pal." Larkin put a hand to his shoulder and one to his chest, gently trying to stop Hansel's mechanical pacing. IZZY Hansel shook his head, not really all that sure what he was shaking it about. He needed to keep moving. Pushed past Larkin to pace more. Scrubbing a hand through his hair. He was fucking filthy from the swamp. "Diva," he said, 'cause that was the main thing he was thinking. "Fuckin' -- fuckin' Diva. Fucking Diva." JEN Larkin moved after him. "I know. I know. Hey." She tried to get in front of him again to stop the damn pacing. "Hey, hey. Stop, man. C'mon." IZZY "Fucking Diva, Larkin," he said more urgently, like saying it again and louder made any difference. "Fucking Diva." He grabbed her shoulders, 'cause she was in front of him, shook her a bit 'cause he couldn't shake himself. "We fucking killed it. We killed that bitch. What the fuck. What the fuck?" JEN "I don't know but you need to calm the fuck down." Larkin gripped Hansel's forearms and squeezed them. "Shit, man, it's... fuck. Shit's fucked, alright, but we gotta stay cool." IZZY "I'm cool!" He shook her again, then told himself off -- Larkin was fucking strong, but she'd been inside that fucking snake, was hurt. He couldn't hurt her more. He didn't have the fucking time to hate himself over it. "I'm fucking cool." He shifted her, gently, to the side, so he could pace again. Circles this time. "I'm fine. I'm good. I'm thinking." He was thinking, It's already got Raef. He was thinking, Raef's back home at the castle. He was thinking, Luci's at the castle. Mishka and Goro are going to come home. It's going to get them. Before I can get there. He was thinking, It's going to take fucking everything from me. He paced faster. JEN Larkin paced after him. "What're you thinking then? We're gonna kill her again. Just do it again and this time we do it fucking right. We're gonna kill all of them." IZZY "Didn't work the first time, though, fuckin' did it?" He scraped his hand through his hair again. Fucking nasty. Tacky. He knew it was just mud, but it made him think of that tar, the thing that Diva bled. Her eyes in Mishka's face, sneering at him. He shook his head, making a wordless nnn sound. JEN "Yeah, fuck," Larkin muttered 'cause he had a real good point there. "We just fuckin' chopped her up, though, just gotta do it differently this time. And we got that fucking demon guy, don't we? He's killed 'em before Goro said." IZZY "And we fuckin' trust that?" Hansel hissed. "Same kinda goddamn thing as Diva!" JEN Larkin just huffed because he did have a fucking point. "Hey," she tried again, helplessly, and made another attempt to hold Hansel. She had no idea what to say and touching him seemed to be what Goro did when Hansel was upset. IZZY He stopped, again. "That fucking thing. Raef made a deal with that fucking thing. What if it got him? He's at the castle, Larkin! And it can fuckin' --." He gestured, pretty vaguely, but emphatically, at his eyes. "It can fuckin' see! If it's in Raef, an' it knows we were just here, and it ain't gotta be stealthy anymore -- my fucking kid is at that castle! Mishka an' Goro are gonna come home, and Goro's already fucked up! And I'm not goddamn there! There ain't shit I can do, and it's gonna fucking get them again!" JEN "We're gonna be there," Larkin said. She reached for his arms to pull him along. "C'mon. We're gonna get going. Find someone to work that circle for us and then we're gonna be there, alright? It's gonna be alright. We fucking ripped that snake a new one, just the two of us. Diva can't fucking take us." IZZY "We can't fucking take Diva!" Hansel said. He meant for it to be a snarl, because he meant to be angry -- fuck Diva, and fuck Anwyll for good measure, fuck Pride while they were at it. Fuckin' demons and shit. Fuckin' warlocks. Didn't come out as a snarl, though -- came out too panicked. Like at the cave. "She's fucking here somewhere," he insisted, looking around desperately. "Still -- still close enough for that shit, that -- that magic fear shit, fucking Diva --." JEN "No, hey, no." She patted at him. "She's not. I'm alright, see? No fear. Nothing's here. She's hiding 'cause she's fucking weak." IZZY "No! She's fuckin' still got me!" More of the fear. He tried to get mad about it, like he had before, but he'd had to get away from it first, and have Larkin talk him down a little, and he couldn't get away from it now. Didn't know where it was coming from. "She's -- fuck -- she's somewhere close by, got to be, 'cause ..." Fuck, fuck. He pulled Larkin against him with one arm and dragged his shield off his back with the other, wrapping it around her, putting his back to the water. The smart thing would be to have Larkin watching his back, and him watching hers, but all he could think was -- what if Diva got her too? That was a grounding sort of thought, at least, that Larkin was here, and he could make sure she was safe. JEN "God, fuck, Hansel," Larkin squirmed behind the shield, had no way to get out short of making one so she turned and hugged him as tightly as she could. "Calm down, man. C'mon. It's gonna be alright, I fucking promise. She's not here. We're safe. Come on." IZZY "She fucking has to be," he insisted. "'Cause -- 'cause the ..." He kinda trailed off, though, because the thing was -- he wanted to say he was calm, he was fine, he was fighting the magic off, 'cause he was standing and he was ready to fight, he wasn't bolting. But he wasn't calm, was the thing, until he was, a little bit, when Larkin grabbed onto him. And he was pretty sure fear magic didn't work like that. He was pretty sure he worked like that. JEN "No," Larkin said firmly. "No. She's not. She's not here. I can't feel anything. I felt it before, yeah? When we entered? Can't feel shit now. She's not here." IZZY Hansel made a doubtful sound. He'd grabbed her to try to protect her, before, but kind of shifted to more hug her back, instead. "Yeah," he said slowly. "I ... maybe." JEN "You wanna get moving? Find some fuckin' wizard to teleport us back?" IZZY He nodded. That was good. Yeah. Needed to fucking -- actually do something, instead of just pacing around. He needed a fucking job, was what he needed. Larkin made him think of Corven like that. All small and sharp and good at giving orders. He'd get fidgety and restless and Corven would just look at him and make him settle down. That, and she'd hated him for a long time, like Larkin, but he was pretty sure they were on the same page about killing for each other, now. "Aye," he said, after a beat. "Yeah. Yeah. Lemme --." He set her down and scrubbed a hand through his hair again. "Lemme fuckin' ... just wash it off. That'll help. I'm good." He tilted his head to the water. She was all fuckin' covered in slime from the inside of the ... thing, herself. "You?" JEN Larkin glanced down at herself. "Fuck. Yeah." IZZY He nodded, again, and tucked his shield away. Took a breath. All right. Without thinking about it much more, he stepped off the docks into the water, letting himself sink down a bit, and scrubbed his hands over his face, and hair, over his arms. Could get the worst of it off him back home. He wouldn't have to worry about everything, then -- he'd have the others to help. They'd work through it together. Felt better when he surfaced again, gulping in air and scraping his hands back over his head to get rid of the water. He checked for Larkin, just sort of habitually. JEN She'd gone in more slowly, removing things that might get lost first then lowering herself in. The slime came off in thick, tacky strings. IZZY Hansel grimaced, treading water. He came closer to try to use his water magic to help pull the snake innards off, but it wasn't really made of water. Just fucking slime, all black and tarry. He held in a shiver. The water was pleasantly warm. No reason to shiver. "Sorry I couldn't keep that fuckin' thing off you," he muttered. JEN "Don't be," Larkin said. She pulled at the strings and flicked them away, more or less successfully. "You were busy kickin' that thing's ass." IZZY "Aye, well." He managed a bit of a smile. "You're the one that fuckin' exploded it inside out." Would've been so good if the goddamn thing had stayed exploded. If they'd just fucking won, and it'd just been simple. Kill a snake. Bring home a fang as a trophy. Still wouldn't've been simple, because of Raef, but Valkur, it'd just gotten so much fucking worse. JEN Larkin grimaced. Might've looked cool from the outside but the memory of being in that fucking thing- dark, suffocated, hot flesh pressing in from all directions- felt like a last fucking straw. Wasn't often she'd been happy about her ancestry but, thank Mask, for the demon blood. "Yeah, well. I'd rather chopped its head off." IZZY He nodded. "Was close," he said lowly. "Would've teleported you outta there if I had to. I got you." JEN Larkin smiled. Then she went under to scrub at the slime and surfaced a moment later a bit further away where the was less gore covering the water's surface. "So, I think I got an idea where we can..." she paused and squinted. "Hey. Hey, Hansel. Can you lift your arm?" She pointed. IZZY He did, puzzled. JEN "Is... that bracelet supposed to be black?" IZZY "Eh?" Hansel had a lot of bracelets. Probably had some muck on him, still, making one of'em gross. When he looked, though -- wasn't muck. He stared at the vitality bracelet, and he worked it out out loud, which he didn't usually do, it was just -- too much finally stay in his head. "S'posed to be green," he said slowly. "Green when Goro's all good. Starts turnin' red when he gets hurt. Black when he takes it off. He don't ever take it off, 'cause ... 'cause that'd fuckin' freak me out, he knows, so he'd only do that if I was supposed to freak out, and -- come get him." It wasn't sinking in somehow. He stared at the black beads. He was in Freeport. He was in fucking Freeport, for a day, for less than a day, and Goro was ... home? Iceport, still? Had something gone wrong with the thing with Sam? Him and Mishka didn't wear the lockets, anymore, 'cause the damn things always thought they were in danger. He had one Sending he could use, but if he Sent to Goro, Goro might be unconscious, or not able to talk, and if he Sent to Mishka, Mishka might not know where Goro was or what was wrong, either. JEN "Ah," Larkin made, floating in place feeling fucking light-headed, trying to find a reaction that wouldn't send Hansel into another panic attack but coming up blank. They were in fucking Freeport and Goro- "We gotta get moving," she said and started paddling for the pier. "Gonna get to the temple, send at him." IZZY "Aye," Hansel said, and stared a beat more before snapping back to follow. "Aye, aye, but -- if he's out, he can't Send back, an' he's s'posed to be with Mishka, but if Mishka's out too, or they ain't together --." Sam, he thought. He could Send to Sam. Fucker was supposed to be a strong warlock or whatever. But if he was the one who'd done something to Goro -- JEN "So what, we're gonna try." Larkin climbed out of the water, pulled her shirt over her head briefly to squeeze the water out, then put it back on and hurriedly stuffed her belongings back into place. "We're gonna send at someone, and they gonna tell us what's up." IZZY "Not if they're fuckin' unconscious!" He dragged himself up and shook the water off himself with some magic help. The bracelet was blindingly black, now that he'd seen it. He put a hand on Larkin's back to usher her along, but more to make sure he didn't outpace her with his longer legs. "I only got one charge. If Goro's in trouble, even if he's awake, he prob'ly can't talk -- or he woulda Sent instead of takin' the bracelet off." That made sense. Right? "So -- so Mishka?" But maybe Goro's amulet had been taken, or he was out of magic, or he just didn't fucking have the spell ready today. JEN She nodded. "Mishka. And, uh. Obsidia. Sam. We can send as much as we want once we're at the temple. The clerics will help us." IZZY He nodded back, the indecision fading before it could get too deep into his head and fuck with him hard. Options. That was good. Larkin could get help at the temple. He thought for a second, concentrating, then Sent to Mishka. Goro's bracelet off. He safe? You safe? Where should I come? On the way. COYOTE Castle, Mishka replied. All clear. All safe. Anwyll attacked Goro, but Goro escaped. Then a brief pause, then: Come home as soon as possible. We need you back. IZZY Hansel felt a fucking confusing mix of relieved that they were safe, and fucking furious that the motherfucking snake must've just gotten back from trying to hurt Goro, and then fear again, about goddamn Diva, and concern about the way Mishka said, We need you back. He wanted to be able to Send again and tell Mishka that him and Larkin would be there any minute, tell him it'd be okay, but that was a fucking lie, because he had to go home and tell Mishka that Diva was back. That she'd never been gone. It wasn't okay. If he dawdled, though, Larkin would be the one to leave him behind, so he had to stay right here and right now. "Safe," he said, the relief coming through. "Mishka says they're safe at the castle. Says fucking Anwyll attacked Goro, but -- they're safe." And he'd be able to hear in the Sending -- aye? -- if Mishka was hosted, already. He'd hear Diva's voice. Right. Right. He told himself that. Wasn't a trap. Category:Text Roleplay